Michelle Forbes Interviewed by BBC Radio

Last weekend, Michelle Forbes was in London to accept an award for True Blood at the SFX Weekender convention. She did an interview with BBC Radio in which she talked about her various roles, including that of Maryann on True Blood, and explained why television has gotten so good over the past decade.

A couple of listeners sent in questions about 24. Michelle portrayed Lynne Kresge, liaison to Dennis Haysbert’s President Palmer, in Season 2. She said the main thing she remembered was being stuck in the same clothes and one set for several months.

The interviewer was very keen to talk about Michelle’s work on In Treatment, the HBO series in which she played Kate, the wife of Gabriel Byrne’s character. What is so unique about that show is the format–half-hour episodes air five nights a week and feature mostly just two people sitting in a room talking. Michelle described the experience as being exciting and challenging, and she praised the emotionally dense story and the beautiful performances of the cast.

Another memorable character for her was the single-minded Admiral Helena Cain on Battlestar Galactica. Michelle believes that BSG will go down in history as one of the best series ever made. She calls creator Ronald D. Moore a great storyteller and loves the labyrinthine world he created. The show was so bold and daring in the way it addressed everything about a society from politics and war to religion.

When the conversation turned to True Blood, which will begin airing its second season in the UK on FX channel later this month, Michelle explained the concept of the show. She marveled a bit at how vampires have entered the zeitgeist of the moment, but noted that True Blood adds to that many more colorful characters, both supernatural and human. There are so many levels to the show that it can be light and fun, as well as deep and meaningful:

“I think one of the many wonderful things about the show is that, although it’s incredibly funny and sexy and raunchy at times, so much fun, there’s also this wonderful place for social commentary lying underneath the fabric of that.”

Michelle also had very nice things to say about the show’s network, HBO. She has gotten to know the people there from being on In Treatment and True Blood, and describes how amazing it is to “really believe in the philosophy and intelligence of the people you’re working for.” Many of the greatest series ever, like The Wireand The Sopranos, came from HBO. As Michelle explains, they get brilliant showrunners like Alan Ball and give them freedom to tell their stories and time to develop an audience. It is this kind of attitude that has allowed creativity to flourish in the past 10 years:

“The landscape for television is changing for the better with every moment.”

When asked about what her favorite role of her career has been, Michelle splits her choice between Kate on In Treatment and Maryann on True Blood:

“To go from playing this angry, repressed, frustrated, fearful housewife to playing this outrageous, free, expansive, liberated creature, and having so much fun running around in evening dresses barefoot, how lovely to do both back to back.”

Everyone at True Blood is probably very sad to have lost Michelle (although nobody is going to miss that lunatic maenad!). She is a phenomenally talented actress, and it will be very exciting to see what her next project will be!